Geoffrey Laurence
Bio
Geoffrey Laurence is a recipient of the George Sugarman Foundation Grant, the Robert Rauschenberg Award and the Walter Erlebacher Award. He received his BFA from St. Martin’s School of Art in London and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. Geoff has worked as a photographer for record companies and a London newspaper, as a fashion designer, and as an interior designer.
Geoffrey teaches painting, drawing and anatomy classes at the Los Angeles Academy of Fine Art, Amory Art Center, the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Gage Academy in Seattle. His paintings have appeared in numerous group and solo exhibitions. His work resides in private and public collections including the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. He has appeared in magazines including Art in America, American Art Collector and Art News.
Geoff Laurence’s work is influenced by the Holocaust of 1936-1945 and the German Jewish Romantic movement of the 19th Century. He describes himself as an emotionalist painter rather than a realist painter.
Classes taught by Geoffrey Laurence
Artists' Anatomy Course
This is an anatomy course specifically for artists who are interested in using the figure in their work. Since the 15th century, artists have relied on a thorough understanding of anatomy to produce convincing depictions of humans and animals in their work. Over twelve days, we will thoroughly cover all the bones of the human skeleton and the superficial muscles of the body including the face. I will be concentrating mainly on the surface muscles of the body that are actually visible and some time will be spent discussing the methods we use to move our bones through space and why it is that we have evolved the particular muscles and bones that we have. Each three and a half hour session will comprise of a lecture followed by a drawing session focusing on the part/s that we have been discussing. The student will have the opportunity to compare real human bones to the living model in order to understand the body surfaces that they see.
The student’s materials fee is for a bound book of anatomical reference which Geoff Laurence makes for them and which they keep.
This is a twelve day course of 6 hours per day and requires the use of a skeleton.
Painting in the Venetian Tradition
This class has no available sessions. Please email us if you are interested.
During this painting course, based on the layering techniques of the Venice school of the 15th and 16th centuries, we will be exploring the possibilities of indirect painting. The starting point is designing our composition by means of a careful under drawing followed by a monochrome “grisaille”. The painting then progresses to warm/cool decisions and so called “dead color”, and then through to the final stages of applying glazes and scumbles with a full color palette. We will also look at the work of the Old Masters and discuss their methods.
This is an advanced painting course suitable for anyone with an interest in classical painting techniques and some previous experience with figure painting.
“Geoff did a wonderful job of condensing what should really be weeks of study into the six days of this workshop. He relates clearly and concisely what is really a complicated, but ultimately rewarding technique. I enjoyed the class immensely and would consider taking it again in the future, if offered” – Paul Van Munching
“Excellent education-highly informative. Geoffrey is a master teacher with hundreds of years of knowledge contained in his 40-year existence. I’m leaving with thorough knowledge of the methodology. Geoffrey’s teaching gave me the information to go home and continue this method.” – Annie Dover
“The class with Geoffrey Laurence, Painting in the Venetian Tradition, was just great. Geoff couldn’t have been a better instructor. He’s brilliant, humorous, talented, and now, a friend. The class was a lot of fun, and as a group, an amazingly talented bunch. “I’m looking forward to coming back to Santa Fe in the future.” – Bob Shepherd
Expressive Life Drawing
To draw successfully, we need to connect with our subconscious energy, as well as our conscious or intellectual center. As we progress through a series of specific exercises and techniques, we will focus on using the subconscious and intuitive abilities that we all have when drawing from the model. The student will be asked to break away from their habitual methods of drawing and experience the wonderful energy that exists within. In this 5 day drawing workshop, drawing from a non intellectual and more emotionally based center, we will be using both left and right hands and the mouth, using dry and wet materials. We will do a series of exercises which build up over the week to a more complex drawing using layers of different marks. We also draw to music and with eyes shut. This is an intense and enjoyable experience based on methods that Mr. Laurence has taught himself over 20 years.
Geoff adds, “Students taking this Expressive Drawing course should have plenty of previous life drawing experience – The exercises are designed specifically to shift people out of their habitual mark-making routines, which can be very difficult once one has achieved a figure drawing style that feels good, but does not move forwards. One feels stuck. The students should have already drawn enough to be stuck in those ruts for the exercises to have the most benefit. In other words, it’s not for beginners.”